Deer Tick (Ioxedes scapularis)

The deer or black-legged tick, Ioxedes scapularis, is a small parasitic arachnid about the size of a sesame seed or freckle, and has made the news for about the last decade as the carrier of the dreaded Lyme disease. Named for Lyme, Connecticut, where the tick-borne illness was first identified, Lyme disease is caused by a species of bacterium that is carried by deer ticks among infected white-tailed deer, domestic animals, and humans.